Curators Introduction

2020 was the year of COVID-19 which presented the world with an all-encompassing health scare, threatening and questioning our mortality our perspective, our priorities and our way of life. We are lucky here. This past year has given us pause to reflect and recognise how fortunate we are to be living within the Tasmanian landscape. Finalists in the 18th Glover Prize are reflecting on the Tasmanian landscape as a place of great beauty and have a renewed connection with nature. Interstate artists have needed to recall their past encounters within the Tasmanian landscape and reimagine their experiences. A change in perspective of life is represented in a wider interpretation of the land. Some artists have focused on a specific narrative and part of the Tasmanian landscape, whilst others have used it as a point of departure to consider nature, land and earth as a whole. Art is a reflection of our society. It is also the oldest method of human expression, allowing people to document their ideas, feelings and emotions. It can reveal what attitudes are felt in cultures during various times at various places. The overall focus of this years Glover Prize finalists is of a reconnection to the Tasmanian landscape and nature, of gratitude and respect. The Glover Prize in 2020 concluded on Sunday 15 March. The following week the draw-bridge went up, fortress Tasmania became a reality. COVID-19 has greatly impacted the Arts and artists with events and festivals cancelled, museums and galleries closed. Arts institutions and artists have needed to adapt and approach their work and presentations in a different way. We have adapted and evolved to future proof the Glover Prize. A Virtual Exhibition has been developed and is now accessible through the new website. The Virtual Exhibition will allow anyone, anywhere to virtually visit the exhibition, travel around inside Falls Park Pavilion, view artworks up close and access details and Artists Statements. Artworks can also now be purchased through the website. Thank you to the record number of 640 artists who submitted an entry to the Glover Prize this year. It is encouraging to receive so many entries and is gratifying that the Tasmanian landscape and participating in the Glover Prize continues to inspire. Congratulations to the 42 finalists

whose contemplative work has been selected for exhibition in the annual 18th Glover Prize. The substantial number of entries would have been a great challenge for our esteemed judges this year as they made their selections. I would sincerely like to thank Philip Bacon, Tracy Puklowski and Julie Gough for their time, commitment and expertise in the judging process. Their professional contributions, thoughtful considerations and deliberations are crucial to the ongoing success of the prize and its respect within the arts community. Art may well have been a respite from the ongoing crisis. Nature and the Tasmanian landscape have perhaps been a place where people and artists have found solace, either physically or in their remembered psyche. Covid restrictions have meant people cannot go in to venues, so they have been going out into the landscape and contemplating its beauty. In uncertain times, nature provides certainly with its consistency of seasons and continued renewal. Elaine Green is the only artist amongst the finalists whose work directly references COVID-19. Green painted thirty scenes for her work April, reflecting the thirty days in April 2020 of lockdown in Stanley, Tasmania. The social changes are noted with the quietening of life. In this moment, nature seems to have become more visible as she says “the wind still blew, the rain still fell, the sun rose and set, the tide came in and out and the magnificence that is Stanley comforted my soul”. Keith Lane in his work Lost Overboard (The Hunt for Ruby) references the cancelling of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race due to COVID-19 and Neil Taylor also references his Covid-cancelled trip to Tasmania in his painting Ice Age Fire. It is interesting to observe the difference in the works created between Tasmanian and interstate / overseas artists amongst this years finalists. Previously, artists not living in Tasmania have created work whilst visiting Tasmania or based on a recent visit. Travel to Tasmania has been severely restricted, so these artists have needed to revisit historical experiences for subject matter to express their engagement with Tasmanian landscapes previously visited. Tasmanians have been able to travel within and around this majestic and inspiring State. Perhaps in part due to their confinement to the island, they appear to have re-connected on a deeper level to their natural environment. Rachel Howell (TAS) has titled her painting Syntonic, which means “person responsive to and in harmony with their environment so that affect is appropriate to the given situation.” Howell refers to the Cradle Valley, Ronny

Curators Introduction Cont’d

Creek landscape she has depicted as “Beauty at its best, unlimited combinations of form, colour, texture, shape and pattern. Leaving us awed, enlivened, energised.” Peter Gouldthorpe is another Tasmanian artist who has been painting this landscape for over 20 years, often en plein air, and knows it intimately. Gouldthorpe was “enjoying the wild nip of winter” at Cradle Mountain when through the wind and snow a picturesque scene unfolded before him which he captured in Inside the Snowdome. Whilst the work of Tasmanian artists is based on their deep connection with their home state, interstate artists are thoughtfully reflecting, their paintings similarly imbued with reverence of the Tasmanian landscape and its savage beauty. Melissa Kenihan (VIC) is dreaming of Bruny Island, the Tasmania she has previously visited, musing, “that is where I wish I could be.” Her painting That Bruny Backyard is

of the feeling of being in this place, still present in her psyche where her memories are of the sea, the air, nature and freedom. Leanne Halls’ (NSW) In the Mist was inspired by her first experience of the Tasmanian landscape of a place “that profoundly touches and excites our senses, … the Tasmanian wilderness is one such place which attracts and inspires people.” Jennifer Riddle (VIC) has regularly visited and painted the Tasmanian landscape. Her painting, And I shall not pass you by - Bathurst Harbour, uses memory of place as the subject matter to focus on “our connection with nature, understanding the profound effect nature has on our physical and mental wellbeing.” Through amplifying the scenic beauty, Riddle “Endeavours to exemplify both he physical strength and the transient grace that underlies the landscape.” Whilst the previous three artists have made naturalistic works, Karen Hammat (SA) presents an abstracted view in Night Rocks, Bay of Fires, of “the imprints left in memory by a particular place … the feeling of a place that persists even when its visual memory fades.” Although geographically dislocated, the work of the interstate artists shows a deep connection to the Tasmanian landscape in their minds eye as they portray the ephemeral beauty of the land. Amongst the 42 finalists this year, four have made their work in the form of a tondo - a circular painting. The circle is a symbol of unity and harmony, also a symbol of infinity. This could be an interesting reflection on the pandemic that peoples as a whole have been facing and fighting together on a united front. It is also a way of looking at the Tasmanian landscape and placing it in the greater context of planet earth. V.I.D Singh describes his painting TMSHSKDC 76 simply as being of “The sky as a whole” and is “Forever

recapturing its beauty over and over.” Darryl Brian Rogers’ tondo image Remnant #4 is created using organic matter to express his concern of historical human impact on the land. Similarly, Sebastian Galloways’ View of Mt Lyell through an Acid Raindrop, is created with an uncommon medium, oil on copper, as he too expresses his concerns of the environment, in particular, the effects of copper mining. Referring to this landscape in Queenstown as being a “Mars like landscape” due to the sulphur dioxide emissions. In observing the changed colour of and damage to the environment, through this catastrophe, he reflects that “...they bear a strange and otherworldly beauty”. Luisa Romeos’ tondo painting, The Styx, A Stereo Window, references the stereoscope, a device once used to view far distant lands. It is from this psychological distance that these artists are viewing the land, all land, and making a focused work with an embedded narrative. Romeos’ impressionist work is an emotive response to the untamed beauty of the waters and bushland depicted in southern Tasmania. Whilst being representative of all of “earth’s bounty of natural resources and beauty”. A wider viewpoint has been taken on how we treat mother nature and exploit it for personal and immediate gain, along with the reflection that the land is enduring and will continue far beyond any individual. Thomas Thorby-Listers’ painting Scarred Ridges of the Franklin- Gordon National Park is made by referencing satellite photographs to depict a monochromatic, distant aerial view of the land. The change in personal perspective from last year could be the influence in the change in perspective of these artists work, from micro to macro views. As we all face the present pandemic, smaller life concerns seem less relevant. Art reflects culture by visually translating experiences. In doing so, artists help create and preserve the cultural moment. Contemporary issues are expressed in the works on exhibition in this years Glover Prize, in particular human impact on the environment. However, as the global pandemic continues, the overall consideration of the artists is of seeing, feeling and remembering their experiences of the untamed beauty of the Tasmanian landscape and of having a renewed connection with the natural environment. We are lucky here.

Megan Dick

Curator